Holder felt ‘creeping sense of personal remorse’ after being caught in Fox surveillance

FILE - In this May 15, 2013, file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder gestures while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. Four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Holder said that in conducting U.S. counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and its associated forces, the government has targeted and killed one American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric, was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen. The administration released the information the day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a major speech on national security. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

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Attorney General Eric Holder felt “a creeping sense of personal remorse,” aides say, after it was revealed last Monday that the Department of Justice had seized a Fox News reporter’s personal emails.

The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that the weight of a “press feeding frenzy” forced Holder to reconcile his progressive views with his direct involvement in orchestrating the investigation against Fox’s James Rosen.

In 2009, Holder personally signed off on the affidavit used to justify the seizure of Rosen’s communications in a leak investigation.

As a part of the “damage-control” the Department of Justice is now undertaking, Holder will meet with “major media organizations” as early as Tuesday, the Beast reports, to discuss ways to update relevant DOJ policies.

“This is an opportunity for the department to consider how we strike the right balance between the interests of law enforcement and freedom of the press,” Holder told the Beast.